J. M. JARRE - OXYGENE 4 | PLAYED ON VINTAGE SYNTHESIZERS (12" EXTENDED VERSION)

I recorded this cover of OXYGENE IV - music by Jean-Michel Jarre.

NO SAMPLES, no VSTis were used - just vintage electronic instruments. Every sound was played by hand and recorded onto multitrack without MIDI - like Jarre did in 1976. It was hard work, it required good playing - but I enjoyed the recording process very much. At the first picture in the video you can see a part of my studio. I used only the following vintage analog synthesizers / instruments:

EMINENT 310 Unique (for the strings and pads with Small Stone)
KORG MINIPOPS 7 DRUMBOX
ARP ODYSSEY (brass-like lead sound)
KORG MS-20 (bass)
MOOG MICROMOOG for the sequencer sound, white noise FX and the lead sound with ELECTRIC MISTRESS flanger.

It took three days to record and mix this track. Recording and mixing was done digitally with LOGIC - I also used the reverb and delay plugins - as well as some equalizer plugins.

I used some of the original Instruments from Oxygene (Korg Minipops 7, Eminent 310U, Small Stone) and some other vintage synths (I don't have a RMI or an ARP 2600). However, the ARP Odyssey that I used is the small brother of the 2600, the basic sound is similar). For the RMI sounds I used the Micromoog, which has very fast envelopes.

Music reproduced by kind permission of Jean Michel Jarre, see

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As a big JMJ fan I always wanted to make a very good OXYGENE 4 cover - as a 12" maxi-single version, that never existed. For all JMJ fans (including me), here it is...
It was a interesting project, which was fun and a nice experience. I'm well aware of the fact, that just re-recording such a classic work is totally different than composing and arranging it from scratch.

There are many Oxygene 4 covers on YouTube... but to come as close to the original as this, you need analog equipment - you will not get such a sound from digital stuff, vst plugins...